5.5 years into this farm business, I’m only beginning to improve at getting away. This week, with only a few days notice, I squeezed in a 44-hour bro vacation with the fella who has been breaking away with me on these for well-nigh a quarter-century. Even shorties like this have a manner of impacting the … More A Big Smooch for Isabella!
Seven men and six women, a full baker’s dozen, blew by me atop the meringue-like crust as if I was standing still. Most were in full lycra suits. Muscular buttocks all, 26 in total, striding and gliding as poetry in motion—bodies and brains perfectly aligned in a complex task— the very picture of focus, while … More Delighting in the slipstream of others
A wood-fired cabin, blanketed in fluffy snow and nestled along the Canadian border, beats the beach any day of the week. This has long been my ideal vacation spot. Now, for the first time, I was able to share the experience with my family. The cabin, built in 1928, is roughly the same vintage as … More The best farmer vacay ever
My new long awaited south-facing grow space has been seeing action for two weeks now, and it’s totally changing my life! It was a real trick getting this thing done before winter, but we made it just in time. Here I am painting the space on an unseasonably warm late fall day, which was a … More Open for business!
The freedom to make choices simply because they feel good, without approval from bosses or bean-counters, is never taken for granted over here. Early last week, in the final hour of Duluth’s last 70 degree day, I desperately needed to soak up those last few golden drops of sunshine. Amazingly, we made it happen after … More Working for yourself has its perks
I’m irrationally exuberant about my new podcast, Never Picked. Won’t you give it a try? A persistent theme, to loosely quote Chesterton, is, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly at first.” That philosophy is demonstrated lock, stock, and barrel, over here, but it is honestly one of the things I desperately wish to inspire … More The Naked Podcaster
As we neared the firing of the cannon marking the end of summer, discontent bubbled up inside me like a witch’s brew in a red hot cauldron, threatening to boil over at any moment. With school set to resume tomorrow, our usual quota for adventure was woefully short. We completely failed to camp together as … More Making it happen after failing so miserably
When the problem is larger than you are—your experience, skillset, wisdom, or imagination—the best course of action is to do nothing. Simply wait. My seven-year journey has demonstrated this again and again. Unlike Frodo’s course, our family’s quest has carried us away from the fires of Mordor, and all that corporate disfigurement, toward a sustainable … More Arriving at a solution vs imposing one
The best part of our family having carved out a niche through farming, writing, and the creation of fine art, by far, is having a seat at the community’s dinner table, which enables us to join the larger conversation. This brings immense joy, particularly when our contribution is the least important part, but somehow remains … More Finding a seat at the table
Just two hours ago I hurried our phone call to a close. We were discussing a potential market opportunity for my farm’s produce. I quickly determined that Tiny Farm Duluth doesn’t have capacity for anything new right now, and while wading through the awkward, “How are you doing?” stage of the call, Mehgan offhandedly mentioned … More Who is crazy enough to do this?
Ed's Big Adventure 